Author Guide · Self-Help & Memoir
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Oprah Winfrey has kept a journal since she was fifteen. For twenty-five years she hosted one of the most-watched talk shows in American television, and through her Book Club she sold millions of books by other writers. Her own books are fewer than most people think, and almost all of them grew out of conversation: a magazine column, a studio interview, a long exchange with an expert. This guide covers all nine in order, which ones she wrote with someone else, whether she has written a memoir, and where to start.
By Lisanne Swart · 9 books · Female authors · 1996–2026 · Updated September 2026
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Quick answer
Oprah Winfrey has written or co-written nine books: Make the Connection (1996, with Bob Greene), Journey to Beloved (1998), What I Know for Sure (2014), Food, Health, and Happiness (2017), The Wisdom of Sundays (2017), The Path Made Clear (2019), What Happened to You? (2021, with Bruce D. Perry), Build the Life You Want (2023, with Arthur C. Brooks) and Enough (2026, with Dr. Ania Jastreboff). She has never published a full memoir; What I Know for Sure is the closest thing to one, and the place to start.
Where to Start with Oprah Winfrey
If you want Oprah in her own words
→ What I Know for Sure (2014).
If you want to understand trauma
→ What Happened to You? (2021).
If you want to be happier, practically
→ Build the Life You Want (2023).
If weight and health are your question
→ Enough (2026).
If you love Toni Morrison
→ Journey to Beloved (1998).
All 9 Oprah Winfrey Books, in Order
Make the Connection
Ten Steps to a Better Body and a Better Life
Written with her personal trainer, Bob Greene, a ten-step programme for a healthier body and life, from regular exercise to eating habits, alongside Oprah's own account of her struggle with her weight. Read today, it is most interesting next to Enough, thirty years later, which reaches a very different conclusion about willpower.
Journey to Beloved
Oprah's journal of making Jonathan Demme's film of Toni Morrison's Beloved, in which she played Sethe, a woman who has escaped slavery and is haunted by her past. She had wanted to bring the novel to the screen since she first read it in 1988. Her entries sit alongside Ken Regan's photographs from the set, with a foreword by Demme.
What I Know for SureStart here
The short essays Oprah wrote for the back-page column of O, The Oprah Magazine, gathered by theme: joy, resilience, connection, gratitude, possibility, awe, clarity and power. It is the closest thing to a memoir she has published: small moments from her own life, each ending with what she took from it.
Food, Health, and Happiness
115 On-Point Recipes for Great Meals and a Better Life
The recipes Oprah most likes to cook at home, from unfried chicken and turkey chili to a Tuscan kale and apple salad, with stories about her relationship with food. It is often left out of lists of her books, which is why some sites count eight rather than nine.
The Wisdom of Sundays
Life-Changing Insights from Super Soul Conversations
Short passages from the conversations on her programme Super Soul Sunday with spiritual teachers, writers and thinkers, grouped by theme and introduced by Oprah's own reflections.
The Path Made Clear
Discovering Your Life's Direction and Purpose
A book about finding your purpose, built from Oprah's own turning points and from insights shared by the teachers and leaders she has interviewed over the years.
What Happened to You?On my shelf
Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing
A long conversation between Oprah and the psychiatrist and neuroscientist Bruce D. Perry about how early experiences shape the developing brain. Its central idea is in the title: to stop asking “What's wrong with you?” and ask “What happened to you?” instead. Oprah draws on her own childhood throughout. It was a number one New York Times bestseller.
→ Read my full recommendationBuild the Life You Want
The Art and Science of Getting Happier
Written with the Harvard social scientist Arthur C. Brooks, a practical book on the science of happiness: how to manage your emotions, and how to build the four pillars Brooks sees as essential, family, friendship, work and faith.
EnoughNewest
Your Health, Your Weight, and What It's Like to Be Free
Written with Dr. Ania Jastreboff of the Yale School of Medicine, a book that treats obesity as a chronic disease rooted in biology rather than a failure of willpower, and explains how the new weight-loss medications work. Oprah writes about decades of public shaming over her weight, starting with a 1985 appearance on The Tonight Show. Published on January 13, 2026, it became an instant New York Times bestseller.
Which Oprah Winfrey Books Did She Write With Someone Else?
Four of her nine books are co-written, and in each the other author is the expert while Oprah brings her own story.
- With Bob Greene, her personal trainer — Make the Connection (1996). Read the entry →
- With Bruce D. Perry, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist — What Happened to You? (2021). Read the entry →
- With Arthur C. Brooks, a Harvard social scientist — Build the Life You Want (2023). Read the entry →
- With Dr. Ania Jastreboff, an obesity specialist at Yale — Enough (2026). Read the entry →
- On her own — Journey to Beloved, What I Know for Sure, Food, Health, and Happiness, The Wisdom of Sundays and The Path Made Clear.
In What Order to Read Oprah Winfrey
Her books are not connected, so start with whichever question you came with. If you want a path, move from her own voice to the books she wrote with experts.
A reading path
1. What I Know for Sure (2014)
2. What Happened to You? (2021)
3. Build the Life You Want (2023)
4. Enough (2026)
A before-and-after
Make the Connection (1996) next to Enough (2026): the same subject, thirty years apart, and two very different answers.
Books Linked to Oprah Winfrey That She Did Not Write
Search for Oprah's books and these turn up too. None of them is hers: one is a cookbook by her chef, one is a biography of her, and one is the autobiography she decided not to publish.
Open a form with the + to see every book in it.
Often listed under her name
1
1 book · 1994
In the Kitchen with Rosie: Oprah's Favorite Recipes (1994)
Recipes by her personal chef, Rosie Daley, with an introduction by Oprah.
Amazon, Bookshop.org and more
Books about her
1
1 book · 2010
Oprah: A Biography (2010)
An unauthorised biography by Kitty Kelley.
Amazon, Bookshop.org and more
Never published
1
1 book · 1993
- 1993Her autobiographyannounced by Knopf, then withdrawn by Oprah before publication
Quick facts about Oprah Winfrey
- Born
- January 29, 1954, Kosciusko, Mississippi
- Education
- Tennessee State University
- Known for
- The Oprah Winfrey Show, in national syndication from 1986 to 2011
- Books
- 9, from Make the Connection (1996) to Enough (2026)
- Co-authors
- Bob Greene, Bruce D. Perry, Arthur C. Brooks and Ania M. Jastreboff
- Founded
- Oprah's Book Club (1996), O, The Oprah Magazine (2000) and the OWN television network
- On screen
- Academy Award nomination for The Color Purple (1985); Sethe in Beloved (1998)
- Honours
- Presidential Medal of Freedom (2013)
How Oprah Winfrey Writes: Conversation on the Page
Oprah is not a novelist, and she has never presented herself as a writer first. Her books read the way her interviews sound: warm, direct and built around a question. That is no accident. What I Know for Sure began as a magazine column, The Wisdom of Sundays and The Path Made Clear draw on the conversations from her programmes, and her co-written books are shaped as exchanges between Oprah and an expert.
What she brings to those exchanges is her own life. She has written and spoken openly about a childhood marked by poverty and hardship, and about decades of being judged for her weight in public, and she uses that experience to make the experts' ideas land.
Her greatest influence on reading is still other people's books. Since she launched Oprah's Book Club in 1996, a selection has been able to turn a novel into a bestseller almost overnight, and the club has now made more than a hundred picks.
Frequently asked questions about Oprah Winfrey's books
How many books has Oprah Winfrey written?
Oprah Winfrey has written or co-written nine books, from Make the Connection (1996) to Enough (2026). Four of them are co-written: with Bob Greene, Bruce D. Perry, Arthur C. Brooks and Dr. Ania Jastreboff.
Has Oprah Winfrey written a book?
Yes, nine. Her best-known books are What I Know for Sure (2014), a collection of essays from her magazine column, and What Happened to You? (2021), written with the psychiatrist Bruce D. Perry. Her newest is Enough (2026).
Did Oprah Winfrey write a memoir?
Not a full one. Oprah planned an autobiography with the publisher Knopf in 1993, but withdrew it before publication. The closest thing to a memoir is What I Know for Sure (2014), and Journey to Beloved (1998) is a personal journal of making the film Beloved. Her co-written books, especially What Happened to You? and Enough, also include a great deal about her own life.
What is Oprah Winfrey's newest book?
Enough: Your Health, Your Weight, and What It's Like to Be Free, written with Dr. Ania Jastreboff of the Yale School of Medicine and published on January 13, 2026. It became an instant New York Times bestseller.
What are Oprah Winfrey's books in order?
In order of publication: Make the Connection (1996), Journey to Beloved (1998), What I Know for Sure (2014), Food, Health, and Happiness (2017), The Wisdom of Sundays (2017), The Path Made Clear (2019), What Happened to You? (2021), Build the Life You Want (2023), Enough (2026).
Which Oprah Winfrey book should I read first?
What I Know for Sure (2014). It is short, it is entirely in her own voice, and it gives you a sense of what the rest of her books are about. If you are interested in psychology, start with What Happened to You? instead.
What is What Happened to You? by Oprah Winfrey about?
What Happened to You? (2021) is a conversation between Oprah and the psychiatrist and neuroscientist Bruce D. Perry about how trauma and early experiences shape the brain and behaviour. Its central idea is to replace the question “What's wrong with you?” with “What happened to you?”.
What is Enough by Oprah Winfrey about?
Enough (2026), written with Dr. Ania Jastreboff, argues that obesity is a chronic disease rooted in biology rather than a question of willpower, and explains how new medications can help. Oprah writes about decades of dieting and public shaming over her weight.
Did Oprah Winfrey write a cookbook?
Yes: Food, Health, and Happiness (2017), with 115 recipes and stories about her relationship with food. The earlier bestseller In the Kitchen with Rosie (1994) was written by her personal chef, Rosie Daley, with an introduction by Oprah.
What is Oprah's Book Club?
Oprah's Book Club is the reading club Oprah Winfrey launched on her television show in 1996. Its selections regularly become bestsellers, and it has now made more than a hundred picks. The books it chooses are by other authors, not by Oprah herself.
Footnotes
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all hers.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“The most valuable gift you can give yourself is the time to nurture the unique spirit that is you.”
— Oprah Winfrey, The Wisdom Journal
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